Meeting with John Baker on a late weekday morning I was surprised to realize that at the end of our hour plus talk we had yet to speak of the coffee. It wasn’t for the lack confidence in the coffee, serving one of the best cups of joe in town is nothing to take lightly. However, serving a great cup of coffee isn’t enough to make a coffee house great, it’s not even enough to necessarily ensure the survival of a local coffee house. But if you’ve ever visited Kern Street Coffee Co you’ve likely noticed that it’s more than the coffee that makes Kern Street Coffee a great coffee house.

John, who says that as a young adult spent most of his time in and around coffee shops in Santa Cruz decided ten years ago that he needed a change from his professional, shirt and tie life and the life of a coffee shop owner seemed to be a rather good possibility. Moving to Fresno John and his then business partner began looking for possible locations for a coffee house.

From the beginning John knew that downtown was the location of the coffee house he had in mind. Downtowns being the life blood of any city, a center for community members to come together to shop, converse, walk and sit and have a cup of coffee. This seems to be the vision for downtown now, but ten years ago John was a bit of an anomaly.

True, even though businesses have stuck it out in downtown even when downtown was completely forgotten few business moved into downtown ten years ago. So when Kern Street Coffee Co. moved into its present location at 2134 Kern Street as a new business, and a coffee shop at that John was a pioneer of sorts. Consider at the time there was only one Starbucks in town at the old Barnes and Noble.

Talking with John it becomes apparent that for him a coffee house is a lot like cities and jazz (running the coffee shop is John’s business promoting jazz through Jazz Fresno & Kern Street Coffee Co. is more of a vocation). All three require a certain amount of organic growth effort on the part of the participants. Just as good jazz (the only totalitarian aspect to Kern Street Coffee Co. is the jazz that’s played. John tells me: “If you want to sit and have a cup of coffee here you’re going to have to listen to some good jazz, it’s not up for a vote.”) requires it to be friendly enough to be inviting but challenging enough to make you pay attention the same goes for a coffee house. A good coffee house needs to be comfortable enough to make its customers welcome and it needs to have that additional and unique flavor, flare, or is it ambiance that keeps you coming back? It is the differentiation that one finds when visiting a local coffee house that suits a certain mood, a differentiation that is non existent in the sterile environs of the countless neighborhood Starbucks.

John sees cities much the same way. Cities have to grow from the inside, they need to develop around what makes that city unique, they need to welcome the different people of the city. Again, John has incorporated these aspects into Kern Street Coffee Co. From the moment you walk into Kern Street Coffee you notice a few things. Of course there’s the jazz playing and then there’s the compilation of people. Everyone from city politicians, lawyers, and the city’s various movers and shakers to artists, musicians. From retired men and women to young college kids and from business men and women to the unemployed. One rule that John empresses on his new employees is the need to treat each customer with the courtesy and respect due them, regardless of their place at the top or bottom of the ladder or the left or right of the political spectrum.

Kern Street Coffee Co. is a coffee house, a refuge for jazz and in some ways a microcosm of a city. Oh yeah, the coffee – its excellent from the standard brewed coffee to all the specialty coffee drinks and fruit smoothies. And a pretty good breakfast and lunch menu as well.

*Editor’s note: Kern Street Coffee Co. tries to have at least one ethically traded coffee brewed for costumers, but in order to maintain this option the costumers need to make it known that they are willing to support coffee shops that offer ethically traded coffee even if that means paying an extra quarter for a cup. Tell John next time you’re in.